His turn of phrase could be spellbinding for listeners, whether describing autumn in New England or the assassination of a Kennedy in his BBC radio programme, Letter From America.

But one of Alfred Cooke's first writing tasks was given by a teacher at Seedley Council School in Salford.

He was asked to write an essay on why he was lucky to live in the city rather than the country.

Sixty years later in a letter from his home in Fifth Avenue, New York, and now known as Alistair, he recalled his schooldays.

This year the school, now called Seedley Primary, celebrates its centenary.

Taking a leaf out of Cooke's career, the school is asking past pupils to send their own letters recalling their time at the school.

Headteacher Graham Storrow said "We are looking to create a wall or tree of memories that will be an historical archive in itself.

"Before he died last year at the age of 95, Cooke must have been one of the oldest of our ex-pupils." A centenary garden is being planted by pupils, an Edwardian Day is planned for November and a show will be staged for a reunion of former pupils. The school is also trying to track down its oldest living ex-pupil.

The school opened on November 19 1905 with sections for boys and girls. On November 20 - by coincidence the day Cooke was born three years later - the infants opened.

Sadly the log book which recorded Cooke's first day at school in August 1913 was destroyed in a fire. He was a pupil until 1917 when his family moved to Blackpool.

In his own letter from America to the school sent in 1980 in response to the 75th anniversary Cooke says: "I don't think there's any question that the August 15 entry refers to me, though nobody I can recall ever called me Alf. I was always Alfred and my intimates knew me so, until a Scottish aunt much later insisted on adding the Scottish form of Alistair.

"I have the most vivid memories of Blackpool and my life and schooling there but very little of the Seedley school.

"I do recall, however, the guilty pleasure with which on Mondays I went off to a shop and bought the Magnet to read about Harry Wharton and Bob Cherry. I say `guilty' because once some master caught me reading it in the classroom.

"I was devastated with shame and, having always been a law-abiding type, I never did it again."

He also recalls meeting his mother at a laundry in 1916 where she was working part-time during the war: "Everybody at the place was very glum and when my mother took my hand she said simply `Kitchener has been drowned' we walked home on one of those typical Manchester days when the sun slants through the coal dust after heavy rain. I thought the bottom had dropped out of our world."

Another ex-pupil was artist Harold Riley who arrived in 1938.

The school has 253 pupils. Its future is uncertain due to a school review.